U.S. Generals Doubt Ability of Iraqi Army to Hold Gains

Monday

Jun 25, 2007 at 4:19 AM

The American commander in Baquba, Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, said Iraqi forces are “not quite up to the job yet.”

ALISSA J. RUBIN

BAGHDAD, June 24 — Iraq faced more troubles on the military and political fronts on Sunday: some American commanders expressed doubts about the ability of Iraqi troops to hold the gains made in areas north of the capital last week, and two Sunni Arab blocs boycotted a Parliament session, demanding the reinstatement of the speaker.

The speaker, Mahmoud Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab, was put on leave at the request of a broad coalition of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, after incidents in which he lost his temper at other members and struck them or allowed his guards to rough them up.

The American commander in Baquba, Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, and his counterpart south of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, pointed to a variety of problems with the Iraqi forces, including a shortage of trained troops and a lack of basic supplies like ammunition, radios and trucks.

“They’re not quite up to the job yet,” General Bednarek said in an interview with The Associated Press in Baquba.

American troops are at the forefront of the offensive in Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, which has become a haven for Al Qaeda. Baquba is the provincial capital. But the understanding has always been that Iraqi troops would hold the ground as the Americans leave.

Commanders have repeatedly voiced concerns that there are insufficient well-trained Iraqi troops and say that many units remain undersupplied. In testimony before Congress on June 12, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of training the Iraqi Army, said that there was a need to increase the Iraqi forces by at least 20,000 troops this year and that a further expansion would be needed in 2008.

However, in Diyala Province on Sunday, Iraqi leaders sounded relieved by the results of the past few days of fighting. “The outcome of the operation is great,” said the Diyala chief of police, Qanim al-Quraishi. “We attacked the nests of the armed groups. Many areas were liberated from the hands of terrorists. Life is coming back to these places.”

The Iraqi commander of the operation in Diyala conceded that, despite efforts to encircle leaders from the militant group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, they had been able to flee. “Elements and leaders of Al Qaeda fled to Tikrit, Samarra and Buhruz,” said Abdel-Kareem al-Rubaie, the commander. But over all, Iraqi officials were pleased that the insurgent leaders were no longer in the provincial capital.

In Samarra, a roadside bomb exploded Sunday, killing four Interior Ministry commandos, wounding two and destroying their truck. The commandos recently arrived in Samarra to secure the town after the bombing of the Askariya shrine. A bomb also exploded near an American convoy in the town. There were no reports of casualties.

Farther north, in Mosul, a policewoman was shot to death by gunmen as she left home for work. A 35-year-old Iraqi journalist was also shot to death on her way home from work in Mosul, The Associated Press reported. The journalist, Zeena Shakir Mahmoud, had been writing about women’s affairs for the newspaper Al Haqiqa.

In Baghdad, 11 bodies were found, the director of a children’s hospital was shot as he returned home from work and a mortar shell killed one civilian and wounded two others.

Eleven American troops were killed Saturday, three more than the eight previously reported, the military said, and another died of wounds received on Saturday, bringing the total to 12 dead. One soldier died when his patrol was hit by small-arms fire in a southern section of the capital, the military statement said. Another was killed by hostile fire northwest of the city. A third soldier died of noncombat-related causes in Tikrit. The fourth died of wounds from a roadside bomb and small-arms fire in eastern Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government was deadlocked over the issue of Mr. Mashhadani, the speaker. The two Sunni Arab groups that boycotted Parliament on Sunday said that he should be reinstated. The Shiite bloc aligned with the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr already was boycotting Parliament to protest the bombing of the Askariya shrine.

Two weeks ago, the Sunni Arab coalition that brought the speaker to power gave its word that it would find a replacement and that Mr. Mashhadani would resign. However, Mr. Mashhadani refused to accept that decision and has rallied enough support that the bloc was unable to find a replacement for him and has now reversed itself and is calling for his reinstatement as speaker. A second, smaller Sunni bloc, has also called for his reinstatement.

However, the main Shiite bloc, which controls the largest number of seats in Parliament, appeared unready to accept his return. “Mashhadani was being removed for administrative reasons and not political ones,” said Ali al-Adeeb, a member of the Dawa Party. “The Kurds, Shiites and Iraqis do not want him back.”

Parliament is on the verge of receiving legislation crucial to any reconciliation, including a revenue-sharing measure for income generated from oil production, and cannot credibly move forward without Sunni Arab participation.

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